White Teeth Lesson Plan

The novel opens with the epigram "What is past is prologue," a line from William Shakespeare's play The Tempest, a play that explores the ethical problems of colonialism. Zadie Smith cites this phrase as coming from an "Inscription in Washington, D.C., museum" (presumably the Folger Shakespeare Library). How are we to interpret this epigram and its alternative citation in light of what we have read of the novel so far? How does this relate to Smith's understandings of history and authenticity?

Smith chooses the most quintessentially English author--William Shakespeare--as the source for the opening epigram of her novel. She does not attribute it to him, but rather...